Live to Grapple. Grapple to Live.

Mighty Ajax and Clever Odysseus struggle against each other, yet neither can throw the other, nor be thrown.

A python lashes out, grasping its prey first by the mouth, then its coils. It struggles weakly, then not at all.

From the first story ever told, to tales on the silver screen. They all have at least one thing in common: Grappling.

Grappling is thrilling, dangerous, and drives thousands of years of epic storytelling.

Dungeon Grappling brings those thrills to the oldest fantasy RPG with rules and examples for Swords and Wizardry (and other OSR-style games), the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and 5e.

Dungeon Grappling provides:

Simple, unified mechanics, using the same concepts as weapon strikes

Variable outcomes – grapples can be good or bad

Dynamic, tense stories

Weapons, talons, magic . . . they’re all in here.

Grappling just got scary again!

What’s in the Book

First and foremost, this book contains rules based on Open Gaming Licence content from several editions of the industry’s most popular RPG – explicit examples for Swords and Wizardry, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and Fifth Edition.

Let’s look inside:

Introduction: How can grappling be as epic at the tabletop as it has been in stories throughout history?

Core Concepts: Dungeon Grappling shows that the same basic concepts that you use to smite a foe with your sword are perfectly appropriate when grappling. The attack roll, target number, and effect roll are all unified in the context of grapples to minimize special cases.

Grappling Effects: Dungeon Grappling presents a variable effect roll - using both "control points" as well as conditions to make grappling exciting and unpredictable.

Grappling Techniques: This section gives you options, from simply rendering them immobile, to tossing or dragging, to takedowns, throws, choke holds, grappling with weapons, using magical spells to grapple in a way that makes all of them follow the same basic principles.

Monstrous Grappling: Let’s face it. Grappling is for monsters. A dozen examples are provided to highlight how to calculate the attack bonus, grappling target number (the equivalent of armor class for grappling), and the grappling damage roll, as well as brief discussions of how such monsters fight.

Combat Examples: An example vignette and grappling-oriented combat is provided for each of Swords and Wizardry, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and 5e.

Quick Reference Sheets: All of the key calculations, tables, and concepts are summarized in three pages in the back of the book for easy lookups and rules checks.

Art and Layout: Laid out and illustrated in full color by a great team of professionals, the interior is as beautiful as the rules are elegant.

Navigation and Layering: The PDF is hyperlinked in the Table of Contents and Index, and Bookmarks are provided. The document is also layered, allowing the background, art, or text to be turned on and off for ease of printing or readability.

Kickstarter backer here.
Pros: The art is appealing and illustrates typical and not so typical grappling scenarios to get the creative juices flowing. Some scenes include: heroes vs. swarms of minions, armored knight vs. lion, multiple gladiators vs. huge scorpion, a mage entangling foes, and 19 other quality illustrations. The quick reference sheets covering three systems is useful and makes incorporating these options a snap. The chapter by chapter breakdown above is accurate.
Dungeon Grappling offers a needed and fun dimension to the RPG combat experience. I'll be keeping watch for the for the next product offered by this publisher.

don PJanuary 24, 2017 1:42 am UTC

I purchased this item previously and wanted to review it here. However the site won't allow reviews unless I buy the product from them so I am leaving it as a comment.
Kickstarter backer and very happy with the product. The team behind dungeon grappling were on the ball, proactive and very helpful throughout the process.
The rules cover a wide variety of RPG systems and covers a lot of what makes grappling such a critical but overlooked aspect of the games we all love so much.
Highly recommended for those of us who want to add another interesting option to melee combat !

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